HISTORY
A special thanks is given to Mr. Russ Dodge, who supplied historic material of the Vineland Speedway that was used to create the history of the speedway.
The Vineland Speedway is located off Delsea Drive (Route 47), less than a mile south of Sherman Avenue. The speedway contributed a major ingredient in the development of auto racing in the State of New Jersey. Starting out as a dirt track oval for stock cars, the facility ended up becoming a motor sports complex before holding its last sports car event in 1965. In addition to the half mile oval, Vineland Speedway housed a quarter-mile drag strip, and a 1 ½ mile road course for sports cars and motorcycles.
The speedway idea originated from stock car driver “Rocky” DiNatale and businessman Anthony Caccaro. Bernard Brown, owner of the 55 acre wooded lot that was to be sold for the speedway, contracted Charles Nocco Company to clear the property. After the clearing, Charles Nocco got involved with DiNatale, and Caccaro to excavate the oval and build the new facility. After the Nocco company invested over $60,000.00 into the project, it became evident that DiNatale would not have any money to complete the speedway after a real estate deal he was involved in had collapsed. Bill Nocco, the son of Charles Nocco, had directed the work that was being completed at the speedway. After a talk with his father, Bill had decided to go on and complete the Vineland Speedway and promote it himself rather than losing their investment. At that time, Bill Nocco had attended stock car races at Alcyon Speedway, and used this exposure to promote the speedway.
On April 3, 1955, the Vineland Speedway had opened its doors for its first race. It was reported that the traffic coming into the speedway on the inaugural Sunday had backed up several miles on Delsea Drive. Almost 5,000 spectators gathered that day to see Al Tasnady, then residing in Atco New Jersey, win the first feature event with car #44, which was owned by local businessmen Romeo Gelsi, and “Toots” Armelini. The name “Tas” would become synonymous with the Vineland Speedway as Al Tasnady went on to win twenty-four feature races during the track’s first 2 years of operation.
Vineland Speedway was sanctioned by the Interstate Stock Car Racing Association in its first two years and went to NASCAR in 1957. A switch was also made to Saturday night racing to allow cars from Alcyon Speedway, the established Friday night track, to come to Vineland. Al Tasnady left the Vineland Speedway to run Flemington Raceway on Saturday evenings, leaving Bill Nocco without his number one star. While Vineland had the best drivers in the competition, local fans missed Al Tasnady because of his earlier success at the Vineland Speedway.
After battling with a dust problem for 3 seasons after its opening, the Vineland Speedway opened its 4th season in 1958 with a paved oval. Bill Nocco introduced asphalt racing to South Jersey. The Speedway, later advertised as the “track with traction”, started to compete head to head with the well established NASCAR dirt track (also known as Alcyon Speedway) Pitman on Friday nights. Vineland returned to Interstate Stock Car Racing sanctions upon its new season with a paved oval. The opening race, on May 2, 1958 saw Elton Hildreth, also known as the “Wild Man” take the opening event. He later went on to be the all-time winner at Vineland with a total of 32 features. On May 10, 1958, Bill Nocco went on to start a four-week trial of drag racing at the Vineland Speedway. This trial opened a battle with the state over laws regulating auto racing. At first, the home stretch of the oval offered an eighth-mile strip, which generated so much financial success that a full quarter-mile drag strip was constructed a few months later. Since the laws in New Jersey at the time were based on oval track racing, they were not feasible for the drags. Laws such as requiring the doors to be bolted or strapped shut were not realistic with the hard-top cars of the 1950’s. Laws requiring drivers to be 21 years old were also lowered, with the intent of getting people off the streets and into a supervised, safely controlled racing activity. Nocco with the consultation of an attorney discussed the modification of rules for drag racing. As a result of this effort, auto racing laws would be adapted to the new sport of drag racing in New Jersey.
On March 12th, 1960, Bill Nocco had ended his five year racing war when he signed a lease for the Alcyon Speedway and would operate both tracks. Bill Vail, the Alcyon promoter, would stay on at Alcyon as a general manager, and become Bill Nocco’s right hand man. This meant that Vineland would finally be able to run on Friday nights without going head to head with the well established Alcyon Speedway.
The decade of the 60’s began with great optimism as the Vineland complex offered stock cars or motor cycle racing on selected Sundays. Tommie Elliot took the opening two stock car shows of the 1960 season followed by a popular win by hometown legend, Al Tasnady. Al would return for only a few weeks as Elton Hildrith would go on to tie a record set by Al in 1956, winning 13 feature events.
Despite all of the fanfare generated by Bill Nocco and Bill Vail working together, a successful partnership never materialized. Only seven shows would be run at Alcyon in 1960. Three were summer holidays and two were Tuesday nights. At the end of the 1960 season, Alcyon was closed with a condition of sale that the property would no longer be used for auto racing.
The 1962-1963 season at Vineland offered business as usual with many weekends still offering the three varieties of racing at the complex. In the modifieds the arrival of Pete Frazee in Woody Johnson’s #68 and the transition of Wally Dallenbach into the Barney #14 would offer the fans a “ton” of excitement. After Tommie Elliot took four of the five opening shows in the 1962 season, Frazee and Dallenbach would become regular visitors of the winners circle. Wally captured four of thirteen features. Races between Pete Frazee in the #68, the “Wildman”, and Wally in the Mr. Pop’s X-torsion Oldsmobile would leave an unforgettable print on the race fans’ recollections of the Vineland Oval.
After the rich history of racing being described, Vineland speedway did not open in the spring of 1965. Only two stock car shows would be presented in the month of July. Al Tasnady returned on July 25th to take a Sunday feature in the dirt track stock car #39 of Dave Piscopo. It was such an exciting and sentimental win that most fans in the area remember that as being the last race at Vineland. However, on the following Friday, Joe Kelly beat out Elton Hildreth in a poorly attended event to close the record books on Vineland stock car racing.
What happened to Vineland Speedway? The official story is that when the drag strip/road course was built, it was actually partially located on property owned by a Millville, NJ company and they would no longer lease the ground to the speedway. Another version of the story is that when the ground was sold for the building of Cumberland County College, it was on the agreement that the adjoining Vineland Speedway property could not continue as a racing facility.
Today, Cumberland County College sits on the western edge of Vineland Speedway’s old drag strip/road course. To those who do not know about the Vineland Speedway, these grounds mean nothing. But to those who can recall the sound of unmuffled engines crackling their roar back off the surrounding woods as some of the day’s best coupe-and-coach racers battled their way around the track, the memories are still warm and crystal clear.